Heritage Queenstown has begun a major refurbishment programme. Wing by wing, every deluxe room and suite is being transformed with fabulous new furniture, wall coverings, art work and entertainment systems including new 40 inch and 46 inch LED TVs.

As a result Heritage Queenstown which prides itself as a Qualmark Enviro Gold hotel, was faced with finding a solution for the sustainable disposal of the surplus old furnishings including almost 200 televisions. The furniture soon found new homes with a local ‘garage sale’ and suitable bedding was given to a local charity, but with the switch to digital transmission imminent, there was nowhere suitable to re-home the old TVs.

Alan Crawshay, the maintenance manager for Heritage Queenstown who manages the award winning hotel’s sustainability programmes, set about to find a safe way to dispose of the televisions in an environmentally responsible way.

“We take our Qualmark Enviro Gold rating seriously and were concerned about the problem of what to do with the old televisions. So far through the refurbishment not a single item has gone to landfill and we didn’t want that to change in disposing of the TVs. We know how toxic TVs are in landfill, so we were prepared to pay for a responsible alternative and we were pleased to find a local RCN e-Cycle site to assist,” says Alan Crawshay.

Wanaka Wastebusters has been contracted to collect the Heritage Queenstown televisions and recycle them through their RCN e-Cycle depot. The first truck load of TVs was picked up today from Heritage Queenstown.

“We are delighted to see Heritage Queenstown taking a leadership role for the hospitality industry in dealing with the problem of old TVs. They contain flame retardant chemicals and about two kilos of lead each, so it is potentially hazardous to put them straight in to landfill. If people do choose to buy a new TV with the digital switchover, we strongly encourage them to recycle their old televisions responsibly as Heritage Queenstown has,” says Ms Gina Dempster of Wanaka Wastebusters.